Since 1906, the Forward has been answering reader dilemmas about daily life in “A Bintel Brief,” Yiddish for a bundle of letters. Send your queries to [email protected], and listen to a podcast version of our signature advice column.
Bintel Brief
The Latest
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Life Bintel Brief: The Mamele Says ‘Roasting Is Your Friend’
Dear Mamele, I feel completely inadequate when it comes to holiday celebrations. I’m not such a slouch in the kitchen, but hosting a big holiday meal or Seder for family and friends is something that seems downright terrifying. It’s easy to prepare and bring a homemade dish or a cake to someone else’s home, but…
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Life Bintel Brief: The Mamele Advises an Alaskan Fisherman Living in Hasidic Borough Park
Dear Mamele, Hi. I’m a goy from Alaska who just moved to Borough Park. Before I moved here, I may have been the only logger/fisherman who read Isaac Singer, Martin Buber, Rabbi Nachman, Potok, Ansky and others. Now, I guess I expected my Hasidic neighbors to be Gimpels, thieves, louts, dipsomaniacs or kabbalistic meshugene. But…
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Life Bintel Brief: The Mamele Helps With the Housework
Dear Mamele, This is a complicated question, so I will ask it at length. What is an equitable division of housework? Does it entail doing exactly one-half of the housework, even if a large part of that housework seems to one to be fetishistic make-work, of no use or interest to anyone but the person…
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Life Bintel Brief: Ask the Mamele
As the Forward’s East Village Mamele columnist, Marjorie Ingall has never been shy about sharing the details of her life with readers — whether she’s discussing pregnancy, potty-training, Jewish holidays or cancer in the family. Now, readers of the Forward can share the details of their lives with her. For the next month, the Mamele…
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Life Bintel Brief: Catie Lazarus Has the Last Laugh
Dear Catie, Sarah Silverman and Sacha Baron Cohen are two of my favorite comedians. Unfortunately, while I enjoy their comedy, I also feel conflicted, because they both can be quite cruel. Earlier this month, MTV Video Music Awards host Sarah Silverman showed no mercy toward Britney Spears after the pop star’s embarrassing performance on the…
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Life Bintel Brief: Catie Lazarus on a Wild Ride
Dear Catie, A short while ago I returned from a trip on a flight into Newark airport. I live in Brooklyn, and as it was late at night and I wanted to get home, I decided to take a cab. No sooner than I got into the cab did I realize I had taken my…
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Life Bintel Brief: Catie Lazarus Has the Answers — Maybe Even the One to Your Question
With the Days of Awe fast approaching, and thoughts of atonement and who shall die by fire and who by water and who by beast and whatnot bearing down on us, we could all use a little comic relief. So we turned to one of the Forward’s funniest friends to serve as this month’s Bintel…
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Life Bintel Brief: Rabbi Shmuley Boteach Tackles a Conversion Conundrum
Dear Rabbi Boteach, Thirty-plus years ago I converted to Judaism; this has been one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life. I have a troubled relationship with my brother and his wife; religion is among the many differences my wife and I have with them. We’ve reached a reasonable, arm’s-length relationship. For business…
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